The present invention relates to a new and distinct perennial variety of Vaccinium hybrid (Southern Highbush Blueberry), which has been given the variety denomination of ‘Ridley 1602’. Its market class is that of a fruiting plant. ‘Ridley 1602’ is intended for use as fresh fruit for shipping, customer pick and processing markets and as a home garden plant.
The new Vaccinium hybrid cultivar is a selection resulting from seedlings produced in a breeding programme of Vaccinium at Lindendale, NSW, Australia in 2011 from the controlled pollination of seed parent ‘Ridley 1403’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 25,432) with pollen parent ‘Ridley 4609’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 29,469). The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single plant within a population of 100 resulting Vaccinium hybrid plants from this controlled pollination in 2014 in a commercial field plantation environment at Lindendale, New South Wales, Australia. Selection criteria were a combination of strong plant growth vigor, upright to semi-upright plant growth habit, low chilling requirement, very early to early time of flowering and fruit ripening, large to very large, sweet, firm, crisp fruit suited to handling, desirable tasting berries and small picking scar.
The selection was subsequently evaluated for a number of years at the commercial farms at Lindendale, New South Wales, Australia and Tabulam, New South Wales, Australia.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cutting propagation since 2014 at Lindendale, New South Wales, Australia has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.